I'm not going to bother doing individual match threads for each one. I'll just update this each time that we get near to another match. First up? Newcastle in Melbourne. please log in to view this image Wednesday 22nd May 10.45am Friendly Melbourne Cricket Ground Spurs squad: George Abbott, Brandon Austin, Rodrigo Bentancur, Leo Black, Alfie Devine, Jamie Donley, Radu Dragusin, Bryan Gil, Tyrese Hall, Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski, Rio Kyerematen, Emerson Royal, James Maddison, Ashley Phillips, Pedro Porro, Yago Santiago, Pape Matar Sarr, Dane Scarlett, Oliver Skipp, Heung-Min Son, Micky van de Ven, Guglielmo Vicario, Alfie Whiteman. Newcastle squad: Mark Gillespie, Aidan Harris, Nick Pope, Harrison Ashby, Dan Burn, Dylan Charlton, Paul Dummett, Lewis Hall, Emil Krafth, Alex Murphy, Ciaran Thompson, Kieran Trippier, Elliot Anderson, Lucas De Bolle, Bruno Guimaraes, Travis Hernes, Joelinton, Jacob Murphy, Matt Ritchie, Ellis Stanton, Jay Turner-Cooke, Joe White, Miguel Almirón, Harvey Barnes, Amadou Diallo, Alexander Isak, Garang Kuol, Ben Parkinson, Callum Wilson. Ref and VAR: No idea. Don't really care. Hopefully not Jarrod ****ing Gillett. TV: Streamed on both clubs' platforms. I'm sure it's probably available somewhere else, too. How would you like to line up for this one and how do you think we actually will line up? Anyone care?
Given the final day of the PL season was known since last summer, what an utterly stupid decision by the club to schedule the game (there better some serious increase to the balance sheet for playing it) .
What's the issue....they need some sort of debrief before season end and it may just as well be in Australia as anywhere else.
If you keep well hydrated and exercised on the flight and don't change your time zone internally it will hardly notice. They are not flying economy class.
I know it's madness and another example of how PL teams are now first and foremost money making machines.
Just read an article on the beeb site. Eddie Howe thinks its great to connect with their overseas fan bases. Ange says the same and also for the revenue. However Ange also said that if we were in Europe he would have blocked it.
Absolute waste of time but fans overseas deserve the chance to see the team live too so from that angle I get it.
Are you kidding? The jet lag is impossible to ignore on a journey that’s going to take 20+ hours! The jet lag ruined the first week of my honeymoon
You don't get jet lag if you don't change your internal time zone. They don't have to do that for a three day trip. Just stay approx on UK time but change your wake up time to 5am or 3pm Melbourne time. Go to bed at 6am Melbourne time. On the plane go to sleep as soon as you can and sleep as long as you can. I know from experience that this works fine
And it undermines their claims that they have to play too many games. Next time a top manager complains of 4 games in 9 days and that his players are tired, they should be reminded of games like this
There's a massive difference between competitive games and this match though. This is just a training session in a different place
Hardly any football clubs make a profit. They are just vehicles for channeling money to players. Each needs more and more income to afford the best players.
Which does not change my point. I didn't say where the money was going or that there was profit involved. PL football teams are money making machines.
The game is so soon after they arrive that if they are able to sleep well and exercise then they will be fine. A couple of days later would not have been so easy to handle.
